Invasive goby helps steady population of Lake Erie water snake

3:39 AM,
Oct. 2, 2013

This Lake Erie water snake has banded markings. Many of the formerly endangered snakes are gray. Their population exploded in the mid 2000s as their diet shifted to the invasive round gobie, which is prevalent around the Lake Erie Islands.

Written by

Kristina Smith
Watchdog/enterprise reporter

Two years after the Lake Erie water snake was removed from the federal Endangered Species List, its numbers are robust and holding steady, a researcher said.

And the snake can thank an invasive fish for a large role in its comeback.

The resilient snakes have turned to the massive numbers of the round goby, brought to the Great Lakes through ocean-going cargo ships' ballast water, as their main source of food, said Kristin Stanford, Ohio State University Stone Laboratory education and outreach coordinator, research scientist and herpetologist. ...